


Today

by CyborgV2



Series: Tonight [1]
Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Marcone's POV, Post-Book 12: Changes, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29834943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyborgV2/pseuds/CyborgV2
Summary: Why did Marcone put the Brighter Future Society castle where Harry Dresden once lived?
Relationships: Harry Dresden/Johnny Marcone
Series: Tonight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193378
Kudos: 16





	Today

Gentleman Johnny Marcone looked up at the hulking grey monstrosity and suppressed a sigh. He wasn’t quite sure why he was disappointed; he shouldn’t be. This newly complete building, or more accurately new to the city of Chicago. The actual stones were far older than the surrounding city, and, his magical consultant assured him, imbedded with some of the strongest warding known to wizards. This was meant to be a final victory against the scruffy wizard, a final insult to the man who had insisted on disrespecting and taunting him. “Scumbag” and “Asshole” were common phrases directed at him, anyone else would have died for that disrespect. And John’s first instinct was to do just that. But after the soulgaze, he had initiated, in their first meeting John was not quite confident that he (and all his men) would be the victor of that battle. He had been content to wait, a man like Harry Dresden acquired and cultivated a collection of very powerful enemies like they were stamps, coins or Pokémon cards. It had been a matter of time till those enemies would manage to remove the thorn in his side that insisted on being called Mister Dresden and dressed rather like a reject from a cowboy movie. 

One had eventually, with a bullet from a sniper riffle, succeeded.

As the years had progressed from their meeting, he had found himself occasionally quietly removing their problems with the wizard. Or if they were particularly unreasonable in the matter the individuals (or creatures) themselves. It was just good business. Dresden was a wildfire, but he was one that protected Chicago from threats that gentleman Johnny was not quite sure his organisation could take on. Not that he would ever admit that much.  
The castle that sat in the middle of Chicago had been imported from Scotland and had once been the home to a very powerful wizard. According to Gard there were complex and powerful protections in every stone. John imagined that he could feel it as he walked across the remarkably normal footpath and up to the door. A kind of presence weighing down on him, the urge to step back pressing on his mind, or maybe that was just the consequence of standing in the shadow of this ugly monstrosity.

He had chosen the castle for its ridiculous look, and the way it stood out like a saw thumb in the neighbourhood. The previous occupant of the lot had been an old wooden boarding house. The house was similar in looks to the surrounding buildings; Harry would hate the castle. There were certainly less ridiculous options. Surprisingly, there were quite a few options for magically fortified bunkers when you had his resources. The main ones of course being the hunking form of Hendricks and his semi-automatic, as well as his magic consultant, Miss Gard that he had hired from MONARC security. Those two were an investment that was not cheap, but worth every penny and whose combination of menacing lurking and professional competence opened doors that would have otherwise stayed shut. Sometimes literally, Gard had a certain fondness of using her axe in a similar manner to a fireman’s axe, even if there was no fire.  
John smiled like a predator, thinking about how many of properties Dresden would storm into and inevitably set fire to if he found out what John had done. He almost whished he wasn’t dead so that he could see his face alight with an internal fire. He knew a lot about the man would have reacted and how he worked he had figured it out in their first encounter through the soulgaze that he initiated. 

John had always operated on the assumption that the eyes were the window to the soul. He always took the measure of any man (or woman, he was not stupid enough to believe that woman could not be a threat or valuable resource if given the opportunity) by looking them in the eye and gauging their reaction. Did they try and look away, hold his gaze, were they weak? Shortly after he had met Dresden, he had found that Miss Susan Rodriguez, Harry’s ex-girlfriend and ex-mother of his child and ex alive, had fainted after the soulgaze. John understood why, at that point in his career he had seen so little, it had been a struggle not to let his fear show. And even when he was that young, he seen things, hell he had even done things, that would make a fundamentally good person like Miss Rodriguez faint.  
What he had seen in Harry Dresden’s soul had been terrifying. A wildfire eating every tree twig and a surprising amount of typically inflammable rocks in its path. The noise of that fire had haunted his nightmares for weeks after. It was a rushing, crackling fire whose decibel count would put jumbo jets to shame. Marcone would not have been surprised if that fire were all that Miss Rodriguez had seen. It took all his experience in firefights, (the kind with guns not water hoses) to notice the subtleties. There were people trying to contain that fire, put it out, control or leash it (like leashing a wildfire was anything but an uncompromising level of stupid). The people who had tried to leash the flames burnt alive (Miss Rodriguez definitely didn’t make it further than that). It was then that he had decided hiring (bribing) Mr Dresden would be bad for his health. 

It had taken further effort to rip his eyes away from the sight of the burning bodies and notice the rest of the details in Harry’s soul. First was the fire was selective. The flames only burnt the things in the forest that had a level of menace to it. Second was at the centre of the fire, he had no idea how he had seen through the wall of flame, but behind it he knew was a den, a shelter, a safe place, a home for all that the fire had declared its own. That was the most important thing to the fire and what it guarded jealously, a home that was furnished with comfort in mind and contained those that Harry Dresden had declared his.  
As John unlocked the heavy door and stepped inside, he noted the fine workmanship that had raised the height of the door. People in the old days, when the castle had first been built, were shorter than modern people. Harry Dresden, who was NBA sized, certainly would have been uncomfortable in the old castle.

John Marcone froze.

Freezing was something that he had not done in a very long time. For half a second he stood there tense. John had brought this castle and placed it where Harry Dresden’s house once was. It was ment as one last insult to the man. Take his home something that Harry deeply cared for, then make it into something for John’s purpose. But at the same time the castle would be used for good work. The fortress was used as a base to fight the fomor. The fomor were an enemy that had sprung up in the wake of the Red Courts defeat at Dresden’s hand, they had been filling the power vacuum left behind. 

The brighter future society (Harry would have had a field day with an organisation of Marcone’s called that) were fighting the fomor, as Harry would have done. Protecting the people of Chicago that couldn’t protect themselves. This building was meant to be a salute to the man that was, maybe only one finger was involved in that salute, but it was a gesture of respect for the man and the rivalry they had. Well at least he had thought that had been his only reasoning, the raised door height suggested otherwise and Marcone was well aware that lying to yourself, in his business, got people killed.  
He was not in the habit.  
Marcone forced himself to unfreeze and step into the newly renovated interior. Hendrick’s gaze bore into his back, no doubt wondering what had caused john to freeze.

Later, he would think about it later. John was very good at compartmentalising. Now he would check out his new headquarters and later when he was alone, he would analyse what had just occurred to him. 

And John would. Marcone knew many people put off thinking about themselves. It was a weird phenomenon of humans, save the most narcissistic, was that they hated hanging out with themselves. Putting off reflecting on themselves kept several very profitable industries afloat. Anyway someone could avoid themselves they would, from diving into the fictional worlds of T.V., books and Video games to alcohol and the drugs that partially funded his empire. All just methods of avoiding oneself. John knew he did not particularly care for himself, however an unanalysed mind had weak places that an enemy could slip the knife past his guard. So, he analysed and filed his thoughts noting any weak points that could be exploited and then carefully removed them and squashed them to dust.

There were a few chinks in his armour that no matter how hard he tried never went away. His big looming shadow and his oldest friend, a young girl that lay in a hospital bed who may never wake, and every other child that she represented. 

Gentleman Johnny Marcone continued his day, inspecting the building ruthlessly, honestly, he hired professional painters how hard could it be to paint a dam wall to a high quality. There were a few changes to be made, but ultimately it looked good. He steadfastly ignored the trap door and the licks of charred wood on its surface that had been a result of the house fire. The fire had burned down the previous boarding house that sat in this spot (tonight, he would think about it tonight). The trap door hid a subbasement were the previous occupant had for some unknown reason laid a copper circle into the floor (well John knew but the contractors did not). John had left the room unchanged reasoning you never knew when you would need a summoning circle. If the room so happened to be all that was left Harry Dresden, well tonight was the time to think about that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, my first fan fic what do you guys think?


End file.
